Container



G. A. LE FEVRE AND W. B. HUTCHINSON.

CONTAINER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 26,1918- 1,341,060. Patented May 25, 1920.,

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a up when it is to be UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A. FEVRE, OF RICHMOND HILL, NEW YORK, AND WARREN B. HUTCHINSON, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO PAXFLAT BARREL AND CRATE CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 25, 1920.

Application filed June as, 1918. Serial No. 241,950.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Gnome A. La Fnvnn, a citizen of the United States, and a reeldent of Richmond Hill, Queens county, New York, and WARREN B. HUTOHINSON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Containers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Our invention relates to improvements in containers, and the object of our inyention is to produce a simple and inexpensive collapsible container which is very quickly set used, or is easily knocked down when it is to be shipped or stored. The principal use of our container will be for the shipment of apples, potatoes, various ve etables and the like, and we prefer to ma e the container in barrel form, although this is not absolutely essential. In carrying out this idea we use staves which are preferably spaced apart a little for ventilation and economy, and are connected by flexible hoops. We use metal heads which are designed to engage the ends of the staves and support them in such a way that they will be thoroughly braced and so securely fastened, while at the same time either head can be readily removed when necessary We also intend to produce a head which has many advantages of economy, tightness, ease of application or removal, which if desired can be used in connection with any ordinary barrel.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawin s forming a part of this specification, in w ich similar reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the container in barrel form, showing our improvements.

Fig. 2 is a cross section through several of the staves showing the latter laid out fiat.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing another means of fastening the hoo s to the staves.

1g. 4 is a broken vertical section showing the head structure and the manner in which the head is fastened to the staves. Fig. 5 is a cross section of the head.

F 6 is a plan of the head.

Fig. 7 is a detail cross-section on the line 7-7 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a detail edge view of one of the hoo s.

g. 9 is a cross section of a hoop. Fig. 10 is a detail showing how the meet- 1H0 ends of a hoop can be fastened together. 1g. 11 is a detail ,inverted section showlng a slightly modified form of head with the staves in engagement therewith, and

Fig. l2is a view similar to Fig. 4 showing still another slight modification of the head structure.

The staves 10 can be ordinary straight barrel staves of commerce, and they are connected together at necessary intervals by flexible hoops 11 which are of thin sheet metal, and these can be longitudinally corrugated. throughout their length or at points as 12 between the staves as shown in Fig. 9. This gives greater rigidly to the staves.

The hoops are preferably provided with bends 12 which occur between the several staves, thus forming a seat between each bend for a stave, and the hoops can be fastened to the staves in any convenient way. In Fig. 2 they are shown fastened by staples 13, and in Fig. 3 they are shown fastened in a preferred way, in which the metal of the hoop is punched inward so as to form brads which engage the wood as shown at 14. WVhen the staves are set up as in Fig. 1 the meeting ends of the hoops can be fastened in any convenient manner, or by one of man well-known devices for this purpose. e have shown the ends overlapping as at 15 in Fig. 10 and fastened by a staple 16 driven through the overlapped ends into an adjacent stave.

The most important feature of the invention lies in the head, which can be applied to the particular form of container shown, or to other forms. The flat body portion 17 of the head is of thin sheet metal adapted to extend across the container, and near its outer periphery it is preferably provided with a head 18 which fits into the usual croze of the staves 10. From this point the metal extends upward and outward, is doubled over as at 19, and ends in a terminal flange 20 which lies around the outer extremities of the staves and serves the double purpose of a fastening means and of a hoop. It will be seen that a peripheral socket member is thus formed into which the stave ends can be forced, or the socket member can be forced over the ends of the staves, and they are thus very securely fastened. The fastening is made-permanent so far as shipping purposes are concerned by simply using a punch and forcing in a part of the flange 20 as shown at 22 in Fig. 4, thus forming a brad which prevents the accidental or easy intentional removal of the head.

The head can be made of very thin sheet metal if it is provided with radial corrugations 21 as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, this 'being a well known way of stiffening sheet metal, and in order to facilitate the application and removal of the head, the outer flange '20 can be slit vertically at its .lower edge as shown at 21" in Fig. 1.

Where the staves are spaced apart as shown in Fig. 1, the head can be made as illustrated in Fig. 11 if desired, as this makes a much stronger structure. In this case vertical beads 23 are arranged on the inner wall of the'peripheral socket of a head so as to fit "between the several staves, thus forming seats 24 between the'several beads 23 for the stave ends, and the stave ends are thus secured against any lateral movement. It will be seen that so far as this structure in Fig. 11 is concerned, the means of fastening the head to the barrel is not important, as the essential thing is to have the beads or bosses projecting from the head between the staves so as to spread them and prevent lateral displacement.

In Fig. 12 we have shown the head 17 constructed with a socket member 24* which is a plain circumferential socket member having the inner or outer flanges as already described and adapted to be fastened as specified, the only difference between this and the head above described being that the head 18 is not used, as this form of socket is adapted to fit a stave which has no croze. This makes a cheaper structure.

As already stated, the structure is primarily intended to be in the form of a barrel, but obviously it can be of other cross sectional shape, and can be made in the form of a peach basket or other con-- tainer without affecting the invention.

We claim 1. A container comprising a series of slatsspaced apart, hoops connecting the slats so as to form a belt-like structure, said hoops being bent bodily inward between adjacent slats so as to abut with the slat edges and :form spacing mediums, and suitable heads .for the containers.

2. In a container of the kind described, the .body portioncomprising a series of slats spaced apart, flexible hoops connecting the slats and forming a belt-like structure, spacing members formed by inward bends the full width of the hoops between adjacent slats whereby the bent-in portionsabut with the side edges of the slats, and means for fastening the hoops to the individual slats.

3. in a container of the kind described, the body portion comprising a series of slats spaced apart, flat flexible hoops connecting the slats, said hoops having generally rectangular inwardly extending bends for the full width of the hoops extending between the slats to space the latter, and means for fastening the hoops to the slats.

GEORGE A. LE FEVRE. WARREN B. HUTCHINSON. Witnesses:

M. G. ODoNNnLL, ARTHUR S. DANNELL. 

